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My daughter is a rising senior. We toured colleges all over the south this summer and her top choices are UNC (one of her reach schools), UGA and Auburn Univ. Can anyone help compare these 3 colleges? I am posting in all 3 areas for help. UNC is a stretch but she is giving it a shot. We hear they are looking at diversity and uniqueness in students. My daughter is a little intimidated with UNC thinking everyone is extremely smart. She is a high B, low A student. We are not from the south but people from NC recently told her that UNC is all work, no play and is very difficult. Is this the case? This was my favorite school that we toured but realize how hard it is to get into. I would also want it to be a comfortable fit for my daughter. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
From what I can see, average SAT scores of enrolled freshmen at UNC-CH are a little higher than at the other two universities. I doubt it's a significant predictor of how your daughter will do. People who are granted admission can almost always do the work. Getting into UNC-CH is not easy, so it's important to have a Plan B and a Plan C.
I suspect UNC-CH is less of a party school than the other two, and overall UNC-CH has a better reputation in academic circles -- although Auburn has some strong programs and UGA is much improved over the last 25 years. But they are all in classic university towns, and athletics is part of the culture at all three, and they all offer broad curricula (with Auburn probably being the broadest of the three). For what it's worth, most folks would say that Auburn has more in common with NC State while Alabama (which you didn't mention) has more in common with UNC-CH.
Where are you located? I went to both auburn and UNC. Alabama is the south, the deep south. I had complete culture shock in Alabama. I would prefer UGA over AU and UNC over both.
If I were going solely for "college experience" in the non-academic sense Athens would win hands down. But the most important thing for her to consider is what sort of degree does she want and does the university have a good one. If she was interested in engineering, UNC would be a terrible choice for example. But if she was looking to do pre-med it's a good place to be.
I've actually lived in Athens and now in Chapel HIll. I think CH is safer, prettier and less a party school. Of course UNC students have fun. They need to blow off steam after rigorous studies but you rarely see drunks around town like in Athens.
Also CH has so much more going for it than Athens. Research Triangle Park, Duke research, corporations all make CH more international and less Southern than Athens. Of course CH is still Southern but has for many many decades been know as much more progressive than most Southern towns, a certainly more so that Athens. Plus she would have bragging rights if she got into UNC- not so much the others.
I think a B student willing to work could do fine at UNC, but it is my understanding that it is much harder for an out of state B student to get into UNC than an in-state B student. If she's got good test scores and other achievements, volunteer and club involvement, etc, then I think she would have a better chance. They do try to diversify their admissions, so not sure where you're from but that could be a plus or a minus. My sister was very concerned about whether her daughter would get into UNC and UVA because she lives in Fairfax Co Va which sends a lot of kids to both schools. The schools limit the number of kids they take from Fairfax in an effort to diversify their student bodies.
I don't think UNC is all work and no play. It doesn't have the party school reputation that some other school in NC do, so if folks in NC told you that they may just be thinking that ECU is a party school and UNC is hard.
Have you checked out the college confidential boards? I know my sister spent a lot of time there when thinking about colleges for her kids.
I think a B student willing to work could do fine at UNC, but it is my understanding that it is much harder for an out of state B student to get into UNC than an in-state B student. If she's got good test scores and other achievements, volunteer and club involvement, etc, then I think she would have a better chance. They do try to diversify their admissions, so not sure where you're from but that could be a plus or a minus. My sister was very concerned about whether her daughter would get into UNC and UVA because she lives in Fairfax Co Va which sends a lot of kids to both schools. The schools limit the number of kids they take from Fairfax in an effort to diversify their student bodies.
I don't think UNC is all work and no play. It doesn't have the party school reputation that some other school in NC do, so if folks in NC told you that they may just be thinking that ECU is a party school and UNC is hard.
Have you checked out the college confidential boards? I know my sister spent a lot of time there when thinking about colleges for her kids.
I graduated from high school in SC in 2000, was pretty heavily involved in clubs and extracurriculars and had a weighted 4.0 average (unweighted 3.something) and was in the top 10% of my graduating class. I'm biracial too. Didn't even get waitlisted to UNC. Wound up getting a full ride at South Carolina and I think things turned out alright in the end.
I think which school depends heavily on what OP's daughter wants to do - as somebody else said, if she's interested in engineering, UNC's probably not the school. So that said, what's she interested in doing? Something Liberal Arts/Social Science based? Something STEM based?
If it's just generally the academic reputation of those three schools, in descending order I'd say they're
Have you considered NC State (a little easier to get in for in-state kids, not sure about out of state), Appalachian State (beautiful area of the state), UNC-Wilmington (beach school) or some of the private schools — out of state tuition is going to be expensive anyway — Wake Forest, or smaller schools like Elon or Guilford? ECU is also a good school with a med school, although it certainly used to have a big party reputation. I think that has lessened somewhat with the med school now.
Some of the SC schools could be a good choice, too.
Have you considered NC State (a little easier to get in for in-state kids, not sure about out of state), Appalachian State (beautiful area of the state), UNC-Wilmington (beach school) or some of the private schools — out of state tuition is going to be expensive anyway — Wake Forest, or smaller schools like Elon or Guilford? ECU is also a good school with a med school, although it certainly used to have a big party reputation. I think that has lessened somewhat with the med school now.
Some of the SC schools could be a good choice, too.
Agreed - I know I come with some bias, but USC is probably one of the best all-around schools, regionally, especially if your Daughter applies to/gets into the Honors College. It's also a nice mix of a school having an active social scene and pretty decent academics - and based on some of your posts on other forums your daughter is interested in Environmental Sciences? USC has an Environmental Sciences program while UNC doesn't (they have Environmental Studies, but not Sciences.)
UNC does have Environmental Sciences. That is, they offer a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science. It's just part of the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology, where you can also get a BA in Environmental Studies. It's sort of hard to find since they reorganized all the "environmental" research stuff under the Institute for the Environment.
I graduated from UNC with a BS (Geological Sciences) in 2008. I was admitted as an in-state student, but the competition for out-of-state students is really intense and I think it would be a long shot for her to get in, to be honest. But that's why it's a reach school! You never know!
I've also heard that it can be slightly easier for out-of-state students to be admitted as junior transfers than as freshmen. My 2nd cousin did not get into UNC when she applied as an out-of-state freshman, but she was accepted as a junior transfer from a small northern private college (Skidmore, I think). This is also a good way to strengthen her academic record if she really wants to go to UNC. Just another option.
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